Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
happened. Confronted with this evidence, Ingram vehemently
denied he was making anything up or was influenced by others.
His memory of this incident was as clear and 'real' as all his other
recollections.
One of the daughters described the terrible scars on her body
from torture and forced abortions. But when she finally received a
medical examination, there were no corresponding scars to be
seen. The prosecution never tried Ingram on charges of satanic
abuse. Ingram hired a lawyer who had never tried a criminal case.
On his pastor's advice, he did not even read Ofshe's report: it
would only confuse him, he was told. He pleaded guilty to six
counts of rape, and ultimately was sent to prison. In jail, while
awaiting sentencing, away from his daughters, his police colleagues
and his pastor, he reconsidered. He asked to withdraw his
guilty plea. His memories had been coerced. He had not distinguished
real memories from a kind of fantasy. His plea was
rejected. He is serving a twenty-year sentence. If it was the
sixteenth century instead of the twentieth, perhaps the whole
family would have been burned at the stake, along with a good
fraction of the leading citizens of Olympia, Washington.
The existence of a highly sceptical FBI report on the general
subject of satanic abuse (Kenneth V. Lanning, 'Investigator's
Guide to Allegations of "Ritual" Child Abuse', January 1992) is
widely ignored by enthusiasts. Likewise, a 1994 study by the
British Department of Health into claims of satanic abuse there
concluded that, of 84 alleged instances, not one stood up to
scrutiny. What then is all the furore about? The study explains,
The Evangelical Christian campaign against new religious
movements has been a powerful influence encouraging the
identification of satanic abuse. Equally, if not more, important
in spreading the idea of satanic abuse in Britain are the
'specialists', American and British. They may have few or
even no qualifications as professionals, but attribute their
expertise to 'experience of cases'.
Those convinced that devil cults represent a serious danger to our
society tend to be impatient with sceptics. Consider this analysis
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